Canadian Building Trades response to training focused Federal Budget

OTTAWA, March 22, 2013 /CNW/ - The Canadian Building Trades and its nearly 500,000 members represent the most skilled trades workforce worldwide.  The skills our members obtain come from superb in school instruction and from first class on the job mentoring.  The Federal government's budget for 2013 - 2014 will significantly increase our ability to deliver the skilled trades workforce of tomorrow and for that we commend Minister Flaherty.

The Canada Jobs Grant will allow an increase in the delivery of training and the capacity to access such training.  Speaking on behalf of the Building Trades, Canadian Operating Officer Robert Blakely said "we are very much heartened to see that the GOC has listened to industry and delivered on skills.  The Canada Jobs Grant will allow us to deliver strongly needed skills in a much more timely way to the young Canadians who need those skills to access the best jobs in  our growing industry."

Studies by a number of authoritative sources including the Construction Sector Council point to an exacerbation of the skills shortages that many construction employers face.  The requirement for construction and maintenance employers who access GOC contracts to engage in training and apprenticeship as a part of the commercial terms can only strengthen the growth of skills.

Blakely also indicated "the anti-union and anti-training organizations who do not train workers and oppose  investing in training will use high flown phrases to talk about how the requirement to train is actually a disincentive to access skills training; this is a self-centered and narrow view.  It is code for limited or no training because a highly training person has job mobility.  If Canada is going to recruit, train and deploy the roughly 300,000 people that the Construction Sector Council says we will need, over the near term, we need to get bang for the buck on federal investment.  The federal budget announcements look like a really tremendous start down that road"

The Building Trades have over 300 state-of-the-art training facilities across Canada which will be ready to offer first class skills training under these Government of Canada programs.

Robert Kucheran, Canadian Director of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) says this Federal Budget and the tone it sets is an opportunity to work with government and positively impact the Canadian labour market for the next number of years."

About the BCTD

The North America-wide BCTD AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labour - Congress of Industrial Organizations) coordinates activities and provides resources to 15 affiliated trade unions in the construction, maintenance and fabrication industries. industries. In Canada, the BCTD represents 500,000 skilled trades workers.

SOURCE: Building & Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO

Christopher Smillie
Government Relations and Public Affairs
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